The polling data just keeps polling along. The latest batch is from YouGov, from eight swing states. Obama is ahead in seven and tied in one, North Carolina:

YouGov polls in eight key battleground states show a race that remains tight, but with the playing field tilting in favor of Barack Obama. Of the eight states, Mitt Romney manages to tie Obama in one state (North Carolina) while Obama holds a nominal lead in two (Florida and Wisconsin). Obama leads by larger margins in the other five battleground states: Colorado, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire and Virginia.

Transcript of Obama's remark

Buzzfeed Politics has video of the full answer by Barack Obama, which puts his "You can't change Washington from the inside" line into a better light, given the context.

Here's the full transcript of Obama's remark:

I think that I've learned some lessons over the last four years and the most important lesson I've learned is that you can't change Washington from the inside, you can only change it from the outside.

That's how I got elected. And that's how the big accomplishments like healthcare got done was because we mobilised the American people to speak out. That's how we were able to cut taxes for middle class families. So something that I'd really like to concentrate on in my second term is being in a much more constant conversation with the American people, so that they can put pressure on Congress to help move some of these issues forward.

When you express an attitude that half the country considers itself victims, that somehow they want to be dependent on government,” Mr Obama said, “my thinking is, maybe you haven’t gotten around a lot.”

Speaking at a town-hall-style meeting here sponsored by the Univision cable network, Mr Obama said that his travels around the country had convinced him that “the American people are the hardest-working people there are.”

The most important lesson I've learned is you can't change Washington from the inside. You can only change it from the outside.

Now, what does that mean exactly? Isn't that a slightly odd thing for the president to say? The context is that Obama said he wants to go directly to the people – going over the heads of the politicians – and it ties in with an earlier remark he made in the first discussion on immigration: that if Latinos turn out to vote, "they can send a message that this is not something to use as a political football".

Obama's first question on this Univision interview, was on the events in Benghazi last week. Responding to a question about why the US consulate there was under-prepared, and if they were premeditated, Obama backs away from last week's position that it was a spontaneous act. "We don't know yet. We're going to continue to investigate this," is where he ends up.

As it happens, the White House press gaggle today was told that it was "obviously a terrorist attack," so things are changing quite rapidly here.

Barack Obama interviewed on Univision

After Mitt Romney did his bit on the Spanish-language broadcaster, it's President Obama's turn today on Univision for a live interview. Obama is being questioned in Spanish, followed by a simultaneous translation in English, and his answers are then translated into Spanish.

No easy ride for Obama here, the first two questions were on the Libya embassy attacks and the vexed issue of immigration.

When presenter Jorge Ramos asks why Obama didn't keep his promises on passing immigration reform, Obama responds that the financial collapse of 2008 was the cause:

That was before the economy was on the verge of collapse.... My first priority was making sure I prevented us from going into a Great Depression.

Obama goes on to blame Republican intransigence, saying they walked away from reform. "I am happy to take responsibility for being naive here," he says.

Ramos isn't buying it, however: "You promised that, and a promise is a promise. And with all due respect, you didn't keep that promise."

"I did not make a promise that I would get everything done, 100%" Obama replies, sounding mildly vexed.

Nearly all the stars of the hit NBC drama, which went off air in 2006, have busted out their quippiest dialog and dusted off their walking-and-talking skills to record this video. It encourages viewers to vote in nonpartisan state-level ballot measures, Michigan news website MLive.com reports.

My first thought is that Aaron Sorkin should sue. My second is that Josh isn't looking so good these days. And how is it that Bartlett is still president? And why has the West Wing been redecorated with Ikea furniture?

In the 12 days from September 7, the day after the Democratic convention ended and the fall campaign began in earnest, to this Tuesday, Romney held seven public campaign events and delivered a policy speech to the National Guard Assn. on September 11. Mixed in were numerous private fundraisers, including events in New York, Chicago, Costa Mesa, Salt Lake City and Jacksonville, Florida.

During the comparable period of 2008, McCain and Obama held more than 20 public campaign events each. Where they held fundraisers, they typically tried to campaign nearby, ideally in the closest swing state. Romney has not often done that.

Virginia senate candidates Tim Kaine for the Democrats and George Allen for the Republicans have just wrapped up a debate. Not much happened other than Kaine going off-message after being asked whether Americans should face a minimum federal income tax:

I would be open to a proposal that would have some minimum tax level for everyone. But I do insist, many of the 47% that Governor Romney was going after pay a higher percentage of their income in taxes than he does.

God knows what that means but it does step on the Democratic messaging in the wake of Romney's 47% remarks. The Republicans are cock-a-hoop, although they haven't cocked many hoops in recent days.

Long before the Tea Party and the super pacs evolved onto the scene, the Club For Growth was a stalwart pro-Republican lobbying group. But it seems Mitt Romneyhasn't even won them over:

Chris Chocola, president of the influential Club for Growth, a group that promotes lawmakers who pursue lower taxes and spending, said Thursday that Romney still had not convinced him that his administration would pursue a "pro-growth agenda" if elected in November.

"We'll see if he's going to be a pro-growth president," Chocola told reporters during a breakfast meeting in Washington, DC, sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor. "I think he has potential to exceed expectations, I do, but it's a mixed bag with Romney and that's his problem. People don't really know."

Another ringing endorsement there from the Republican heartland. Although to be fair the Club For Growth isn't exclusively Republican. Just about 98.9% of the time.

This is fun, for a change. After the Romney campaign has made some decidedly iffy ads - "You didn't build that," for example, or that latest misleading clip from a 14-year-old interview - the Obama campaign mocks Mitt mercilessly in this web ad.

Rat leaves sinking Mitt

That's the sort of headline some people - but not me, obviously - would place over an article on the news that Mitt Romney's campaign co-chair and one-time vice presidential prospect Tim Pawlenty has quit the campaign to go and work for a K Street lobbying operation for Wall Street bankers.

Presumably Tim just wanted to work somewhere more widely loved and in touch with regular people.

In a separate statement issued by the Romney campaign, Pawlenty said, “My work with Mitt has been a privilege. Mitt Romney is a truly good man and great leader. As the campaign moves into the home stretch, he has my full support and continued faith in his vision and his policies.”

Well, obviously not "full support," right Tim? Because full support would have involved asking your new employer to wait a few weeks, until 6 November.

The Guardian's polling guru Harry Enten delves deep into the latest polling numbers, in a smart piece well worth reading for those of you perplexed about the state of the presidential election.

He concludes:

When I look the current polling data and put it into this historical context, I just don't see a Romney victory. It's not that it can't happen; it's just that 3 points is a good lead in a race that has hasn't shifted easily. Indeed, I wouldn't be surprised if Obama's 3-point lead eventually shrank back to the pre-convention numbers that were so stable for so long. That would fit a historical pattern of tightening before an election. But this race is no toss-up: it now leans pretty hard in Obama's direction.

Earlier this week we had the surprising news that Mitt Romney had been forced to take out a $20m loan to finance his campaign in August. Although this was dismissed as nothing out of the ordinary - it was bridging finance, so to speak - it did reveal something out of the ordinary: that Mitt Romney's campaign is not as awash with money as is so often assumed.

One major reason appears to be that Mr. Romney’s campaign finances have been significantly less robust than recent headlines would suggest. Much of the more than $300 million the campaign reported raising this summer is earmarked for the Republican National Committee, state Republican organizations and Congressional races, limiting the money Mr Romney’s own campaign has to spend.

Campaign financing is a complex business, but it seems the Romney campaign have over-blown their fundraising boasts:

Romney aides released informal dollar figures that lumped several pools of money — some available for his use, others not — into a single figure, providing a perception greater than reality: $106 million in June and $101 million in July, far more than Mr Obama and the Democrats.

Yet those figures obscured the fact that most of the money Mr Romney was raising was reserved for those other political entities like the Republican National Committee.

Obama, on the other hand, has no such worries, since most of his totals came from individual donors.

So this explains why Romney is still holding so many fundraisers when he could be out campaigning.

And the $20m loan? That has to be paid back from the Romney war chest and donations, so that's another $20m he doesn't have to spend in the closing weeks.

It suggests that the over-kill ad campaigns that Romney used to blitz bantamweights like Santorum and Gingrich in the Republican primaries were foolishly extravagant, and that like Hillary Clinton in 2008, Romney spent too much, too quickly.

But isn't Romney supposed to be the one who's good with money and runs a tight ship? Not on this evidence he doesn't.

The Romneyshambles continue. After days of newscycles dominated by the leak of a gaffe-strewn video tape, Mitt Romney's wobbly week totters on with further bad news from the opinion polls, evidence that his vaunted fundraising capacity isn't all it has been cracked up to be, and even loyal lieutenant Tim Pawlenty manning the lifeboats and abandoning the campaign.

All this comes on the heels of yet another relaunch. But much like the latest iPhone operating system, the Romney campaign seems to have lost its map and its sense of direction. Most bizarrely last night it attempted to both dismiss the long video of Romney talking to a dinner of wealthy owners as "debunked" while also claiming that Mitt Romney stood by every word.

It's not to late to right the ship, of course, and the Romney payroll continues to insist that he is doing well in a tight race. But each day this continues, Republican hearts continue to sink. As do Romney's poll ratings, for the time being at least.